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Why canned tuna isn't any improvement

By Sarah BarmakSpecial to the Star

Sun., March 14, 2010timer3 min. read

Eco-conscious consumers are applauding attempts to get the majestic bluefin tuna on the list of endangered species, and rightly so. For all but a few, however, the move will not change our eating habits.

Most of us aren't used to shelling out $10 to $20 each for marbled pieces of toro at upscale sushi bars. The main tuna meal eaten all over the world is far more humble. It comes in a can.

Pre-cooked, usually flavoured with mayo before being pressed between slices of bread, and eaten on the go, canned tuna is a lowbrow but tasty staple of cafeterias and school lunches. In our time of health-conscious eating, tuna is often sold to us as rich in healthful omega-3 fatty acids.

Though we eat so much of it, however, what exactly canned tuna is is a murky subject to most. The majestic bluefin makes up only a tiny fraction of the worldwide tuna catch. The skipjack, half its size, its flesh grainier and less rich, is the most popular tuna in the world. If your tuna can says "light" on the label, it's skipjack. Tuna is a massive business. Catches of the four principal market species – of which skipjack is one – hover between four and 4.5 million tons annually. Skipjack makes up 60 per cent of all tuna that is caught, according to the International Seafood Sustainability Foundation (ISSF).

"If you were to poke into your local supermarket and see shelf after shelf of canned tuna and extrapolate to every supermarket in Toronto, then every supermarket in Canada, then every supermarket in the United States, you'd get some idea of how much of this fish is canned," says Richard Ellis, a leading marine conservationist and the author of a recent book called Tuna: A Love Story.

Unlike bluefin and smaller relatives, yellowfin and bigeye – which are also threatened with extinction – skipjack populations are largely healthy. Because they breed in large numbers and grow to maturity quickly, their stocks can support huge fisheries. So why care about them? One word: bycatch.

Tuna fisheries are big offenders when it comes to killing other sea life. Most skipjack – 60 per cent – are caught using an indiscriminate method called purse seining, which traps not only tuna but turtles, sharks, dolphins – you name it. In order to purse seine, fishing boats plant high-tech machines called floating attraction devices, or FADs, in the ocean. "One of the egregious things out there is (the) FAD," says Bill Wareham, senior marine conservation specialist at the David Suzuki Foundation. "The small fish gather around these things and then the bigger fish, then the predatory fish, and then the turtles and everything else goes around, and after they've been out for a couple of weeks they track them down with their transmitters and run a trawl net under the whole works and catch everything that's there."

Some conservationists claim another kind of fishery, longlines, are even worse.

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"Longlines are the really destructive fishery," says Ellis. "These are (underwater) lines with baited hooks every six or seven feet, which are 60 to 100 kilometres long. You get turtles and albatrosses and dolphins on the line because it's completely untargeted, whatever takes the bait is what you get." Throwing them back isn't an option, either. Turtles and other bycatch are caught for days before the hooks are checked, so they typically die on the line. Ten-thousand albatrosses alone die every year on longlines.

All this for a fish that is contaminated with mercury. What about the omega-3s, you say? What do I eat for lunch? The answer: plenty.

Canned mackerel, a fish that's related to tuna but has far fewer toxins, is an excellent alternative – and inexpensive. It's high in omega-3s, abundant, and much of it is caught locally. A few cheap, fat sardines, a staple of the Mediterranean diet, are practically toxin-free and extremely high in omega-3s. Grilled Arctic char, plates of mussels and tilapia filets all deliver protein, nutrients and flavour. Indeed, it's a wonder we eat tuna at all.

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